Pyrrha Rising
by Edgymcedgelord
Summary: Destiny. Is it a fixed point that leads to an unavoidable end? Or is it, perhaps, the connections and events in our lives that transform us. Experiences that change us to achieve a goal that we abandoned through tragic best intentions. Is destiny just another excuse, or it the power inside us that will not let our time end before our true purpose has been fulfilled.
1. Pyrrha Rising

Destiny. Is it a fixed point that leads to an unavoidable end? Or is it, perhaps, the connections and events in our lives that transform us. Experiences that change us to achieve a goal that we abandoned through tragic best intentions. Is destiny just another excuse, or it the power inside us that will not let our time end before our true purpose has been fulfilled.

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Hello there, Edgy here posting my first fic on this site. I was inspired to get back into writing by some of the great writing on this site by Coeur Al'Aran, Mallobaude, NeoShadows and others.

I decided to start out with a simple wish-fulfillment story from Season 3. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, it is the creation of Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum

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Beacon fell, Pyrrha died,

or did she?

As she kneeled at the top of the tower, arrow piercing her chest, her polarity called to her despite her aura being depleted. The maiden powers had left her. Left behind, the remains of her soul had acquired a sort of understanding. The bonds of the molecules in her cells being ripped apart and burned asunder by the red witch's touch cried out to her. For her friends, for her world, she could not fail, for Jaune.

She clings to her pieces as they drift away. The ferromagnetic properties of Carbon are weak, but she can feel them through the light of her soul. She never had the cause to wonder, nor the desperate need to explore, just to what extent she could control the charges of certain materials. Now she realized, non metallic materials had charges too. Some materials had a weak magnetism, but they all had atoms, electrons, molecular chemistry on the small scale was all about polarization. That realization, that polarity is as much a fundamental force of nature as any elemental magic, feeds her desperation. Her soul begins to build those bonds between molecules back one charge at a time. Pulling Oxygen from the air to feed reactions and letting her Aura remember her corporeal form. Her willpower hardened refusing to let the light of her soul die. The agony extends for months, years, time beyond measure to a desperate spirit determined to stay in the world where they had found love and happiness and friendship.

When she awakens the sky is dark and the sounds of beasts surrounds her. She feels weak but finds enough cloth to fashion a modest toga. She lets herself rest upon the rubble both to regain her breath and allow her aura to recuperate. When she looks out upon Beacon she gasps. She knew that the attack by Cinder and her allies was devastating, but to look upon the first place she had begun to think of as home so despoiled had her questioning the point of the long torture she had endured to restore herself. Doubts crept into the crack in her resolve. The doubt of her lovable goofball of a knight to survive this reality. The doubt of the power of her friends to oppose an evil this great.

Doubt drives her to wonder just how long she was gone. The petrified dragon she sees at the tower's edge is terrifying. Could she have been gone long enough for this beast to begin its hibernation and grow that ashy rocklike shell? No, the vegetation has not yet retaken the campus grounds below. The fires in the city of Vale beyond the cliff have all but burnt out. It still could have been days or months.

She notices her weapon and shield are gone, lost among the ruins or maybe retrieved by friends for a memorial or the enemy for a trophy. The metal of the gears surrounding her resonates with her soul, clearer than ever before. She listens to the sharp, bright song it sings in the magnetic spectrum. The strong charges she is so used to are now accented by the weaker but more plentiful noise of valence electrons and electrochemical forces. She steels herself and rises to stand in the center of the tower. The metal's song tells her that it has been long enough for the season of rebirth to begin after a period of cold. The irony of being born again in the season of new life is not lost on her.

Yes, that is what this is, a new life, another chance. She raises a hand towards the piles of clockwork scraps. The metal becomes liquid, then gas as the atoms are excited. She knows every spring, lever and circuit of her weapon like an old friend. After all, in the loneliness before Beacon, Ruby was not the only one who held one sided conversations with their most reliable companion. As the image forms in her mind so too does the gaseous metal form the parts and assemble the mechanisms. The rifling of the barrel is molded from the air, the blade sharpened to an uncanny keenness by her mind. Promachos, She who fights in front. The shield comes into being and with a smirk she adds a flourish, her symbol overlaid by a double crescent embossed in the center. Atrytone, the Unwearying. More metal forms around her chest, shins, and forearms. Finally she holds her hands in front of her and the metal of the brass fixtures mixes with the plentiful ancient metal from the gears. A crown forms, much like her previous diadem, but with a pattern of leaves and branches. She settles the crown on her brow and it unfolds expanding into a crested helmet.

The Goddess of Victory had died, but in her place had arisen an even greater being. Now she knew, Victory was not about the triumph of heroes over foes. Victory was not earned by the most skilled, most clever, or even the most powerful warrior. Victory was standing with your friends against the tide of those who would tear you apart. A single woman could not find victory. Because the only way to find victory is to protect what you love and let those who love you protect you. She came back to protect her world and her friends. She had abandoned them to seek one on one combat. She had kissed the boy she loved and stuck him in a rocket locker because she had always been taught that the only way to win was through personal glory. Never again. She would find her friends and bring them together. She would hope against hope that the scraggly blonde knight she loved would forgive her. She would still stand beside him, beside all of them, and protect that which she held dear. She would sacrifice nothing. She would fight to live another day. That was the why and how of her return. That was the destiny she had been saved to accomplish. More than a Seasonal Maiden, she had become the Goddess of Protection.

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A/N

This is the Pyrrha resurrection idea that came to me after first watching Season 3. While I always felt she was written to be very 2 dimensional (The Untouchable Champion and The Unrequited Crush) I also saw that she had so much potential for growth. I mean the Maidens may control the elements, but she had power over one of the fundamental forces of nature too. When we get to season 4 and get thrown semblances that can evolve under stress? Why didn't that happen for Pyrrha when she was finally facing a challenge that pushed her past her limits?

Well, that's my reasoning behind this story. (and my rant about world-building inconsistencies.)

For those wondering, The weapons and armor are themed around the Greek goddess Athena.

I have several other stories in the works, so expect more soon.

So Fav, Follow, Review and take it easy. Edgy


	2. Descent into Ruins

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Hello there, Edgy here, due to the encouragement from all the favs, follows and reviews I decided to turn this oneshot into a series. I have a rough idea where I want to take this and took some inspiration from Vol 6 EP 9 though no real spoilers.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, it is the creation of Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum

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Chapter 2

Descent into Ruins

Pyrrha found the stairwell opposite the elevator. While she was able to ascend the tower via the broken elevator she did not want to find herself stuck in the shaft if enemies awaited her on the ground floor. She had to reserve her Aura in case any of the Red Witch's associates had made camp amongst the Grimm. At the base of the tower she encountered several more Grimm statues.

What could have caused these Grimm to become fossilized husks? Was it a semblance unleashed during the stress of battle?

Her questions could remain unanswered until she found her friends. She just needed to find a clue as to where they went. Unconsciously she moved to the last place she had seen Jaune, the place where she kissed him, the place where she had forsaken him for her pride.

She is pleasantly surprised to find a sort of shrine set in the crater left by her rocket locker. A picture of her team and RWBY all smiling. A candle scented with cinnamon burned down to a nub. Most importantly, letters and notes from her friends and teachers propped around the picture.

This is it! The hint she needed. She grabs the thickest envelope, her name scrawled across it in that nearly illegible script she recognizes from his class notes.

 _Dear Pyrrha,_

 _Why did you send me away? Why did you leave me? I'm trying to be the fearless leader and hold our team together. I am trying to be strong for Nora and Ren. I'm trying to be strong for Ruby too. Her team is hurting badly. Weiss was forced by her father to return home. Yang was injured really badly. The leader of the White Fang cut off her arm when she was trying to save Blake. Blake felt guilty and ran off, no one knows where she went. Ruby is really sad. You know, she saw you die and be burned to ash by that evil woman. When she tries to blame herself I tell her it was that woman's fault. But at the same time I know who to blame._

 _If I had been smarter I would have seen your feelings for me and maybe you would have left with me to get help. If I had been stronger I could have fought alongside you. If I had never lied and cheated my way into this school you might have had someone worthy enough to stand by you._

 _Ruby is going to Haven, and since that is the only lead we have to find that woman, Cinder is her name. I'm going to find her and I'm going to make her pay. Nora and Ren said that they would follow me. I'll be Ruby's partner until she can get her team back. But I decided I won't ever have another real partner. I miss you._

 _Goodbye,_

 _Jaune_

Pyrrha's tears fell into the debris around her. She knew where to find her friends. They were headed to her home. How could she catch up to them, stop them from facing this Cinder woman?

She did not know how the broken man who wrote this could be her Jaune. This was written to her, but with the tone she read between the lines she heard the truth of it. He was going to do what she did. He would go, alone even in the company of Ruby Rose and his team, to face the Fire Witch. He would throw himself at the evil woman, not expecting to come back.

She had to go, reach out to him before he repeated her mistakes.

If she could catch them, would he accept her after all the grief she caused? Would he listen to her when she told him they needed each other, all their friends, together, to fight this False Maiden?

No, She couldn't think that now. She needed transportation, the faster the better. Pyrrha looked up at the shadow extending across the courtyard.

It must have been too slow to fly out of the Grimm occupied Beacon or too costly in lives to recover. Surely her salvation lied there.

Amity Colosseum.

A few minutes later, Pyrrha's stood on a rooftop of the tallest building near Amity. She closed her eyes and reached out with the sense that she used since she was just a girl. Sensing the world through her polarity was hard to describe. It was almost like seeing the world warped by positive and negative fields except her new body gave her better resolution, nanoscopic all the way up to the magnetic field caused by Remnant spinning. The difference was she could also sense the pull and push of the fields, feel the alterations she could make both to her body and the matter around her.

The helmeted woman raised her arms to either side with palms up. Slowly, the world began to drop away, her feet together and pointed downward. A thrill ran through her. She wasn't really flying, more like repelling the fields around her, but the effect and emotional reaction was the same. She began rising, higher and higher. The higher she went the more Aura she was using to empower her own repelling force against the pull of gravity and the growing distance from the ferric material on the ground. She reached the halfway point and began to use the colosseum as an anchor to pull her to the floating metal structure. She finally came to rest on the docking ring, panting and bent over with hands resting on her knees from physical exertion and the significant Aura drain.

"Well, I'll have to practice before doing THAT again." She said to herself amused, still thrilled that she practically flew. This stronger power gave her all sorts of ideas for strategies and uses, but her Aura still had limits. Catching her breath, she stood and looked around.

The signs of battle and carnage were apparent with dried splotches of blood, bullet holes and even a few frozen Grimm dotting the atrium and landing areas. Even if there had been any remains left it looked as if either returning salvage groups had taken them for cremation or passing Grimm scavengers feasted on the rotted flesh for any lingering negative emotions. As she walked through the abandoned structure she began to see signs of more recent habitation. Footprints in the dust and jury-rigged traps at choke points good enough to fool the untrained eye, but laid out in a way more likely to catch Grimm. She had expected any survivors or resistance to hole up in the most secure location, cut off from any ground-based Grimm, enough food stocks to last for months, and dust stores to last for years. The signs were pointing to an organized group. The likelihood of flying transportation being available rose as she moved through the engineering levels. The mechanical and computer systems looked like repairs had been made, keeping the structure afloat. She followed the signs to the most likely place for survivors to inhabit: the crew living area.

She had read up on the Amity Colosseum when she was a tournament fighter. She always looked forward to fighting during the Vytal Festival. As much as she lamented her celebrity, she never lost the thrill of competitive combat. When she was tricked into killing that poor robot girl, Penny, she found that the thrill of fighting her fellows was an illusion. She had really just enjoyed winning. Her reasoning for and perception of possible consequences of fighting others were flawed. The consequences of winning were greater even than helping others improve.

The stakes of fighting her fellows were life itself.

Whether it destroyed the career of someone who only wished to protect others, like Yang, or killed a budding friendship like with Penny and Ruby, fighting for the sake of entertainment and glory was effort wasted towards the protection and betterment of faunus and mankind.

In hindsight even with training Jaune, she tended to make their training sessions harsher than necessary, only truly correcting him after several punishing losses. She pretended it was because she had had faith in him enough to correct his mistakes on his own. The truth was she lost herself in winning even those practice spars.

Then when the time came she kissed him and put him in that rocket locker because she didn't trust him to fight. She knew his flaws and failed to correct them time and again due to ego, false faith, and finally because she wanted him to rely on her so much. Her pride pushing her to fight by herself, to arrogantly face a challenge that was not hers to accept. There was no gauntlet thrown, no reason to return to that tower. She left her team, her friends and family to pursue another win alone.

She lamented her mistakes, yes, but she would not let that deter her from the mantle of responsibility she accepted when she was reborn. She would keep moving towards her goal. She would find her friends. She would protect them as she should have before. She would fight alongside them and be there to take the blows they could not.

"Miss Nikos? No It can't be. Who are you to take on the appearance of a girl who has already been mourned? Drop your weapons, turn slowly and speak!" came a familiar voice from behind her.

The red-haired woman relinquished her hold on her weapons and they floated to the ground under her power. She raised her hands as she turned and with them she collapsed her helmet into a the tiara.

"Miss Goodwitch? I-it's me.H-how long has it been?," She spouted in relief.

The blonde headmistress examined her through a calculating and stern glare. "I will ask you just once more, Who. Are You?"

"It's really me Miss Goodwitch, Pyrrha Nikos. I- I came back using my semblance. I know it sounds crazy, but I can prove I'm me."

Goodwitch's expression softened for a moment before she sighed "Hmm, I suppose we can find that out when we interrogate you. Bind her and bring her along."

Pyrrha felt the presence of others behind her as a bag was placed over her head and her arms bound behind her with thick plastic bands. Her mind was racing but she knew that at some point she'd have to prove she truly was who she said. She let the people under Goodwitch's command lead her along.

She would face this trial as she would any other, trusting her friends and allies to trust her.

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A/N

I'll leave this right there. Just so you know I'll be focusing this story arc on the aftermath of the Fall of Beacon and the fate of the survivors.

Not everyone came out unscathed and there will have been character deaths.

So that's your warning. But on the bright side now Pyrrha knows where her friends went, she just has to get everyone to believe she is who she says and get transportation to Mistral..

Until next time remember I have several other stories in the works, so expect more soon.

So Fav, Follow, Review and take it easy. Edgy


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